Gold Prices Down on Week, 2012 Bullion American Eagle Sales Burst

by Bullion Prices Staff on June 8, 2012

Gold prices rose modestly Friday but failed to reach over the significant previous session drop so the yellow metal notched a weekly loss of 1.9%. Other precious metals were down on the day and week. Weekly losses included 0.1% for silver, 0.3% for palladium and 0.6% for platinum.

On Friday, gold prices for August delivery edged up $3.40, or 0.2%, to close at $1,591.40 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gold hit an intraday low and high of $1,556.40 an ounce and $1,596.30 an ounce.

Losses for the week were mostly attributed to disappointment in the lack of a stimulus signal from the Fed. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke testified Thursday before the Joint Economic Committee on Capitol Hill and offered no hints for another round of quantitative easing, or QE3. Precious metals tumbled afterward.

"Chinese economic data and the potential funding needs for Spain and Cyprus will influence the markets early next week, while the June 17 Greek elections will become a greater influence toward the week’s end.

That may lead to range-bound trade in most markets, including gold, market watchers said, as investors might want to just play it safe to avoid being caught in a losing position…

In the Kitco News Gold Survey, out of 33 participants, 27 responded this week. Of those 27 participants, 13 see prices up, while nine see prices down, and five are neutral. Market participants include bullion dealers, investment banks, futures traders, money managers and technical-chart analysts."

In other New York futures on Friday, July silver prices dipped 5.8 cents, or 0.2%, to $28.47 an ounce, September palladium declined $13.75, or 2.2%, to $612.00 an ounce and July platinum prices lost $15.80, or 1.1%, to $1,425.10 an ounce.

The following grid offers precious metals futures on a daily basis along with the most recent weekly losses.

New York Futures – Bullion Prices

Mon

Tue

Wed

Thurs

Fri

Weekly Losses
($/%)

July Silver Prices

$28.01

$28.41

$29.49

$28.53

$28.47

-$0.04
-0.1%

June Gold Prices

$1,613.90

$1,616.90

$1,634.20

$1,588.00

$1,591.40

-$30.70
-1.9%

July Platinum Prices

$1,427.30

$1,440.50

$1,469.20

$1,440.90

$1,425.10

-$8.10
-0.6%

June Palladium Prices

$613.90

$619.80

$632.80

$625.75

$612.00

-$2.00
-0.3%

United States Mint Bullion Coin Sales

Bullion American Eagles sales were on fire Friday, supported by discounted prices due to the plunge in gold and silver prices on Thursday. As the table below shows, sales for the day were the best of the week.

Also advancing Friday were bullion American Buffalo gold coins and bullion America the Beautiful Silver Coins. These totals and those of the American Eagles are offered in the daily, June and 2012 sales columns below.

Sales of United States Mint 2012 Bullion Coins

Mon

Tue

Wed

Thurs

Fri

June

2012 Sales

1 oz American Eagle Gold Coins

0

0

0

500

9,000

10,000

240,000

1/2 oz American Eagle Gold Coins

0

0

0

0

0

0

54,000

1/4 oz American Eagle Gold Coins

0

0

0

0

0

0

46,000

1/10 oz American Eagle Gold Coins

0

0

0

0

5,000

5,000

155,000

1 oz American Buffalo Gold Coins

0

0

0

500

1,000

1,500

66,500

5 oz America the Beautiful Silver Coins

0

1,000

0

0

400

1,400

15,000

1 oz American Eagle Silver Coins

0

115,000

75,000

100,000

448,000

738,000

15,272,00

Notes: The sales of bullion coins above are in numbers sold, not ounces sold.

In a coin news item of the day, the United States Mint published the opening sales for the American Silver Eagle San Francisco Two-Coin Proof Set that went on sale yesterday at a price of $149.95. One-day San Francisco Set sales were 85,341 for a nearly $12.8 million total.

London Bullion Prices

London bullion prices were down on Friday but mixed for the week. The following grid offers London PM Fix daily bullion prices with the weekly gains and losses.

London Bullion Prices (PM Fixings)

Mon

Tue

Wed

Thurs

Fri

Weekly Change
($/%)

Silver Prices

$27.38

$27.38

$29.36

$29.28

$28.17

$0.79
2.9%

Gold Prices

$1,606.00

$1,606.00

$1,635.00

$1,606.00

$1,576.50

-$29.50
-1.8%

Platinum Prices

$1,407.00

$1,407.00

$1,458.00

$1,466.00

$1,417.00

$10.00
0.7%

Palladium Prices

$607.00

$607.00

$620.00

$629.00

$613.00

$6.00
1.0%

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